On Oct. 8, 2008, Heath, as a member of the jail's Detention Response Team, was taking part in a surprise search for contraband in the jail's B Pod, according to court records. Jail officials had received credible tips that some guards had smuggled in drugs and other contraband for inmates.

Heath and another guard were assigned to control the inmates' movements during the cell searches and were armed with pepperball guns, which fire nonlethal projectiles, according to court records.

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In a hallway, Heath directed a group of 22 inmates to get down on their knees and face the wall. All but one of the inmates complied with the order. When that inmate, someone other than Dotson, refused to obey a second order to kneel down, Heath and the other pepperball-armed officer shot the noncompliant inmate with several rounds of pepperballs, according to Judge Moody's written order.

Dotson claimed in his lawsuit that he was struck by a pepperball. Moody concluded that it was unclear from the record whether Dotson actually was hit, but even if he was, Heath did not use excessive force.

"Here, the undisputed facts show that Deputy Heath used force not maliciously and sadistically to cause harm, but in a good-faith effort to maintain order during a potentially volatile situation at the jail," Moody wrote.

Dotson, 44, is serving a 40-year sentence at Miami Correctional Facility for voluntary manslaughter. He was one of several inmates who reported the pepperball incident to The Tribune in the fall of 2008.

Another inmate, Kenneth Thomas, also filed a federal lawsuit against jail staff, claiming he was struck multiple times with pepperballs